"On what would have been Arthur Russell's 75th birthday, Audika Records presents a remastered/redux double vinyl rerelease of the much-beloved compilation Love Is Overtaking Me of Arthur's folk, pop, and country songs including 'Planted a Thought,' 'Close My Eyes' and 'I Couldn't Say It To Your Face.' Originally released in 2007 the redux edition includes new masters from a recently found pristine tape reel and was remastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering in Portland, OR. Revised artwork by Molly Smith with extensive liner notes from Arthur's partner Tom Lee. Over twenty years ago, Audika Records began compiling and releasing the exceptionally varied, long sought-after music of Arthur Russell, and in the process has succeeded at helping the beloved, late artist find the broader audience he always believed he would reach. A new generation of listeners and critics has come to appreciate Russell as a visionary and an influence upon a broad range of today's most compelling musical artists. While much critical and popular affection for Russell's music has come about well after his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, many fellow artists believed in his genius and were drawn to collaborate with him during his lifetime. The legendary producer John Hammond (Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen) recorded Russell on several occasions; a number of these recordings now heard on Love Is Overtaking Me, along with songs recorded with various incarnations of The Flying Hearts, a group formed by Russell and Ernie Brooks whose shifting lineup included, by turns, Jerry Harrison, Rhys Chatham, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon, and Peter Zummo as well as Larry Saltzman and David Van Tieghem. Several other Russell projects are represented on Love Is Overtaking Me, including The Sailboats, Turbo Sporty, and Bright & Early. Compiled from over eight hours of material, Love Is Overtaking Me reaches back further to Russell's earliest compositions beginning in 1973 and spans forward to his very last recordings, made at home in 1991. Several of the songs featured prominently in Matt Wolf's now herald 2008 film Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell."

Jorge Ben is someone who needs no introduction. Since his first hits in the early '60s, this the greatest icons of the greatest icons of Brazilian pop music. His anthems "Mais Que Nada" or "Pais Tropical" are among two of the most ever listened Brazilian songs of all time. Ben's self-titled 1969 album is a true samba-soul masterpiece from one of Brazil's most creative voices. This isn't your typical late-'60s LP: Jorge Ben blends the hypnotic swing of samba with funk, psychedelia, and sun-soaked soul in a way that feels both classic and ahead of its time. Released in November 1969, this was Jorge Ben's sixth studio record, and his first back with the Philips label after a creative hiatus. He recorded it with the tight-knit, percussive groove of Trio Mocotó -- whose rhythms lock in beautifully with Ben's laid-back guitar and vocals. On top of that, the album features lush orchestral arrangements from José Briamonte and Rogério Duprat, adding a soaring, psychedelic dimension to Ben's sound. Standout tracks? You've got the joyous anthem "País Tropical," a perfect celebration of Brazilian life. Then there's "Take It Easy My Brother Charles," a socially conscious number that tells the story of a rebellious sailor -- Ben weaves in themes of race, identity, and resilience. And songs like "Que Pena" bring in that sweet, soulful melancholy, while breezy cuts like "Criola," "Domingas," and "Barbarella" highlight his playful, poetic side. This record is a rare blend of genres -- samba, soul, funk, psychedelia -- and it's got a timeless energy. Whether you're already into Brazilian music or just looking for something fresh and soulful, Jorge Ben's 1969 album is a joyous entry point. Reissue on 180g vinyl.

Following their 2024 debut La grande accumulation (PING 086LP), Anadol (Gözen Atila) and Marie Klock return with Manivelles. Hailed by The Quietus as a duo that pushes each other to "greater heights of oddness," the pair produces an undefinable mix of folk, kraut, and pop nested inside expansive organ-based arrangements. The album's nine tracks emerged from intensive improvisations in Paris and Istanbul, brought to life with an odd mix of tools: from Prophet-5 and Jupiter-6 synths to mechanical Pianet clatter and even a salad spinner repurposed as a drone. Klock's French lyrics navigate the miniature and the cosmic, exploring the small tragedies of everyday life -- botched holiday gatherings, lingering heartbreak or the absence of a loved one. Born from a moment of catharsis during an Istanbul earthquake that ended a period of writer's block, the record draws its material from lived experience and a lasting friendship. Its title, Manivelles -- meaning "cranks" -- hints at the musical partners' creative penchant for generating songs through friction and playful contradictions. From the shouted pastiche of "Symposium" to the sparse synth pulses of "Une grande tragédie polonaise," it's an album with a wonderfully wonky heart that sounds like faint signals from a beautifully failing transmitter. For Fans of: Bruce Haack, Leonora Carrington, Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul, Dominique Guiot, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Albert Marcoeur Quentin Smirhes, Deux Filles, Woo, Le Zerep, Philippe Katerine, Dominique André.

Just when you thought Kevin Richard Martin's music couldn't go any slower, lower or deeper, Sub Zero emerges. A slow-motion excavation of drug-tech, dub, dreamy noise and frozen ambience, the album gradually mutates into hypnotic pulsations and melodic melancholia. It is arguably Martin's most striking release to date under his given name. Originally released digitally on Bandcamp only in the depths of winter 2022, amid the final year of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine, this desolate epic went on to become KRM's best-selling digital album on the platform. With persistent demand for a vinyl pressing and a full DSP release from fans, Martin thought the time was right for Sub Zero to finally surface in its full glory: remastered and paired with fresh new artwork. Unnervingly, the album is as beautiful as it is solemn, as glacial as it is relentless, and as subtle as it is terrifying. A trip into a sonic abyss, with a tour of a philosophical void, it's to my ears, KRM's most seductive work yet, and also his most emotionally resonant. Martin expertly balances tear-jerking motifs with heavier than hell rhythmic weight. With its melodic fog, eternal drones and eerie atmospherics, the peripheral throb of distant kick drums, the heartbeat punctuation of cavernous subs and the snowstorm blizzard of fuzz absolutely envelopes the mind, whilst crushing the soul. In terms of lineage, Sub Zero might recall a more paranoid Porter Ricks, a dystopian GAS, or a brutally dubbed-out Pan Sonic. Most fitting, however, is its kinship with the deepest dub terrain Martin previously explored on In Blue, The Bug's acclaimed 2020 collaboration with Dis Fig for Hyperdub, where he obsessively probed subaqueous pulses and low-end modulations. Sub Zero is possibly the most minimal, desolate, and deviant dub record yet released on Martin's PRESSURE label. It marks the point at which dub disappears into its own effects trails. Dub music capturing frozen moments in time. Dub as an addictive painkiller, that sounds both sacred and ocean deep.

A note from Lawrence English: "Akio Suzuki has always been an artist in search of unexpected sound, and curiosity has been his guiding principle. Whether that be curiosity for objects, spaces or places, his work has been guided by a porousness and pliability which has allowed him to explore an enormous sonic terrain. This freedom has also allowed him to develop a language in sound that remains utterly his own. Nowhere is this more evident than in his approach to instrument creation. During the 1970s Akio Suzuki devised a series of instruments that would become his sonic signatures. The Analapos and De Koolmees are perhaps his most readily identifiable instruments and it is these two that make up the core of material from which Soundsphere is created. Soundsphere, recorded in 1990 at Hut Apollphuis in Eindhoven, captures Suzuki at the height of his powers. It is a document of his music shaped by patience and dynamism, in equal measure. Few other recordings capture both the tenderness and the presence of Suzuki's ways of discovering sound in his instruments. On pieces such as 'Analapos A: Voice,' he creates a wavering oceanic vocal drone that echoes up and down, tracing the coils of the Analapos' springs. The results are simultaneously minimal and expansive, reminding us that sound exists in the vertical and well as horizontal planes. Similarly his performance on 'De Koolmees: Suzuki Type -- Glass Harmonica' shares this intensity of focus. Suzuki's strikes and strokes on the glass tubes, creating an endlessly evolving array of tonal inflections and pulses. Soundsphere, which is celebrating its 45th anniversary, is an essential capture of the ways in sound Akio Suzuki has developed over his now six decades of practice."

"On the cover: Seefeel: The veteran guitar and electronics project -- the first guitar band signed to Warp records -- forged their reputation in the '90s by bridging nascent shoegaze and post-rock worlds with ambient techno and what became known as IDM. Now a trio of founding members Mark Clifford and Sarah Peacock with Shigeru 'DJ Scotch Egg' Ishihara, they are preparing to release Sol.Hz, their first album of new material in 15 years. By Abi Bliss. Inside: Asher Gamedze: The Cape Town based drummer, bandcleader, educator and activist released A Semblance Of Return, his first for Northern Spy, with his new ensemble named A Semblance. By Francis Gooding; Ibrahim Alfa Jr: With a prolific career in the late '90s stalled by legal woes, the experimental techno producer returned to the fold in the mid-2010s. This year he'll release new material on LA producer Brian Foote's FO label. By Steph Kretowicz; Emilie Skrijelj and Tom Malmendier: The drums, accordian and electronics/turntable duo have racked up a diverse range of collaborators from Otomo Yoshihide and Fred Frith to Mike Ladd, as showcased on the catalogue of their eux sæm label. By Daryl Worthington; Magic Tuber Stringband: Durham, North Carolina based duo Evan Morgan and Courteney Werner formed Magic Tuber Stringband to combine Appalachian folk song-form with contemporary experimentalism. Their new album Heavy Water will be out on Thrill Jockey this May."

Vladislav Delay, primarily known as a highly regarded electronic music innovator, steps ahead with his acoustic jazz quintet, releasing vd5 on We Jazz Records. Echoing the forward-looking vd musical vision always ahead of the curve, the new album does not fit into any specific category, forging a path of its own across the 10 tracks. Recorded at Candybomber Studio in Berlin, the album brings vd together with Maria Bertel, Lucio Capece, Derek Shirley, and Max Loderbauer. This is shape-shifting, elastic music that exists left of any given timeline. Based in Hailuoto in Northern Finland, Vladislav Delay has never fit into any preset mold as an artist. His prolific, at times mythical output has elevated him to a veritable legend status in all music cycles appreciating a unique artistic voice. Be it his forward-reaching recent releases as Vladislav Delay on his own Rajaton imprint, his Ripatti alias, or playing metallic percussion with the Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Vladislav Delay always has "a sound". And that sound is ever-evolving, as his new jazz album shows. What "jazz" is this? There are certainly liquid elements there in the mix, not unlike the ones heard on previous vd productions. Then again, this is acoustic quintet music by and large, but not any specific kind we have ever heard before. Isn't that the whole point of "jazz"? Whatever came before is a springboard, not a limitation.

LP version. Fresh off the back of the successes of Work Money Death, The Flying Hats, and The Library Archives: Volume 4, ATA Records presents The Karman Line by Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble. When musicians are on tour conversations naturally turn to music. Whilst exploring the jazz kissas and record stores of Tokyo, woodwind maestro Chip Whickham and ATA mastermind and bassist Neil Innes discussed their shared influences of Yusef Lateef, David Axelrod, and Alice Coltrane. The seeds for a new project were sown and soon seven tracks of deep, spiritual, groove driven jazz were laid down and on tape. The moods of the album are varied yet share a sense of reverence and exploration. On "Karmen Cantala" and "All Is," Chip's flute floats and soars, propelled by dreamlike harp and waves of impressionistic piano. "Low Orbit" takes things in a funkier direction, with Steve Parry's horn arrangements (including the unusual instrumentation of bassoon, French horn and tuba) channeling 1970s Quincy Jones and the loping swagger of Archie Shepp's "Mama Too Tight." "The Celestial Matari" and "Molecules" recall the flowing, cosmic sounds of Joe Henderson and Alice Coltrane's masterpiece The Elements, and "Earthly Elements" gets earthy indeed. Driven by a heavy, dance-floor bass line and an array of percussion, Chips flute gets huskier, dirtier and more insistent, drawing deep from Yusef Lateef's Psychicemotus and Roland Kirk's Blacknuss.

LP version. Evergreen In Your Mind, the new and third album from Norwegian singer-songwriter Juni Habel, exists in two worlds at the same time. Songs were recorded in quiet corners of her home, on the piano in the school where she works, and it uses the physical world around her to provide percussion. It also takes place, as she herself attests, within a dream; an imagined place in which her desire for oneness with each other and the world is finally realized. Evergreen In Your Mind was recorded with co-producer Stian Skaaden. It is Habel's first album in three-years, following the breakthrough success of 2023's Carvings LP. Formed of eleven new recordings, the songs here remain delicate, with Habel's voice playing an elegant lead role. Small shifts in Habel's sound result in a notable stride forward. More focus went into the groove of these songs. Playfulness was embraced and, perhaps most importantly, patience played a fundamental role in shaping the album with time and care given to every element of these songs. The extra time that was given to the project gave Juni the space to nurture her creativity. She would read and listen to music, hike into the hills, place herself within nature and seek out stillness. Not as a deviation from her work but as a fundamental part of the process. It's a search for connection, and it's a recurring theme across Evergreen In Your Mind. The album's title-track and fist single feels indicative of this narrative. A gorgeous, delicate folk song, it finds Habel out in the woods, hiding from real life, caught in the space between the natural world and the pull of modernity. The album cover also adds shimmer: a striking photograph of Juni among the mountains, it was taken on a day trip to Rondane, a five-hour drive each way from her home.

LP version. With Flame Folclòre, Cocanha continues reclaiming Occitan folklore as a living, political and embodied space. For Lila Fraysse and Caroline Dufau, folklore is neither decoration nor nostalgia. It is a site of struggle, where narratives, identities and imaginaries are constantly renegotiated. Drawing from fragments of traditional Occitan music, the duo composes, reshapes and rewrites. Ancient melodies intertwine with original texts in a contemporary language that echoes both subversive Occitan memories and present-day struggles. The voice becomes a chronicle of now, a way of inhabiting the present. Driven by hypnotic polyphony and the deep pulse of stringed tambourines, the album embraces a minimal, physical and grounded aesthetic. Repetition acts as propulsion, dance as function. Cocanha's practice is collective by nature: to gather, to move, to fuel a joyful struggle around reclaiming the commons. Produced by Raül Refree, Flame Folclòre intensifies the dialogue between memory and transformation. Voices strike, revolve and respond, opening a circular space where folklore is no longer frozen but alive and burning in the present.

This compilation brings together eight tracks by Yassine Nana and his group, recorded between 1984 and 1989, during a key moment in Mauritania's musical history. A central figure of one of the country's most respected musical families, Yassine stands at the crossroads of a long-standing tradition and a period of deep transformation in form, sound and production. Recorded in Mauritania as well as during stays in Paris and Rabat, these songs integrate drum machines, synthesizers and electric guitars into Saharan musical structures. Influenced by reggae, soul and new wave, the group develops a sound that reflects the circulation of music and technology in the 1980s, while remaining firmly rooted in Mauritanian languages, themes and melodic systems. Love, travel, exile and music itself run through lyrics sung in Hassaniya and classical Arabic. Originally released on cassette and long confined to local circulation, these recordings offer a rare perspective on African popular music of the period, seen from Nouakchott. A body of work that documents a Mauritanian modernity, both popular and exploratory, now brought back into circulation by Les Disques Bongo Joe and Sofa Records.

Double LP is presented on 140gm black vinyl in a transparent gloss foil sleeve, artwork and design by Ian Anderson for Designers Republic. Circuitry Electronic launches with a release that stands as a statement of intent -- an artist with few true peers within English electronic music, with an album that jumps out of the speakers and slaps you around the chops. G-Man is Gez Varley -- one half of Sheffield pioneers LFO, and thirty years into his solo career, with his first vinyl album release since Avanti on Force Inc way back in 2002. Their eponymous track "LFO" -- a classic of the bleep and bass techno movement -- was one of the first releases on the Warp label, gate- crashing the UK's Top 20. Having worked with the likes of Richie Hawtin, Karl Bartos, Laurent Garnier, Art of Noise, Radiohead, YMO, and Alan Wilder, in addition to the LFO output, you'd expect Gez to know his way around a techno dancefloor rhythm and drum pattern, and this is an inventive funk-filled journey that never veers too far into experimental territory yet avoids the cliches and generic tropes that too often lose the listener when techno manifests in album form. As the inaugural release on the Circuitry Electronic label this album plugs all the right sockets; stay close for further electronic expansions on the theme on the label in the coming months.

2026 restock, last copies. White vinyl version. Cold Spring marks a decade since the label first released Coil's landmark album Backwards, with a special 10-year anniversary vinyl reissue. After the ground-breaking release of 1990's Love's Secret Domain album, Coil were not dormant; the main project was Backwards, which was started in 1992, updated considerably between 1993 and 1995, and transferred in 1996 to New Orleans, where it was finished in the magic of the Nothing studios of Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). The album saw the fruition of Jhonn Balance's recent vocal coaching, producing haunting, passionate vocals, while reaching new heights. 23 years after its initiation, these tracks have been beautifully preserved by Danny Hyde and are finally available in highest quality audio. Differing substantially from the later, remixed incarnation, "The New Backwards" (2008), Backwards contains the original versions of Coil's much-loved tracks; "A Cold Cell" and "Fire Of The Mind," which have appeared on various compilations over the years, and are now presented as originally intended. This album is the essential bridge between LSD and the later "Musick To Play In The Dark" series. It is an essential conduit, to understand the journey that was taken. 180g heavyweight vinyl in a gatefold matt-laminate sleeve with silver detail.

LP version. Caterina Barbieri and Bendik Giske's At Source resounds music as wellspring, that which is essential and unknowable, and yet utterly primary. It finds two acclaimed composer-musicians building a world together in self-contained collaboration between analogue synthesis and an extended approach to the saxophone that conjures its own universe of sound. It is at once intimate and cosmic, drawing on the challenges and possibilities of their artistic exchange, tearing down technique to access all the expansive possibilities of their sonic meeting point. At Source is a document of the world of sound to be conjured when two artists strive for something together, discovering the expansions and limitations of performance by bodies and machines. It is not an exercise in assimilation, but in productive exchange and creative confrontation. It does not draw on outside energies or influences, but grapples with what there is to find in their respective playing. Barbieri and Giske first met and were enthralled by one another's performances at Kunsthaus Glarus in 2019, a meeting that spurred conversations on the power of transitions as a compositional force. Giske later contributed a rework of Fantas for Fantas Variations (Editions Mego, 2021), an ambitious undertaking to rescore Barbieri's work for his saxophone and voice, a challenge Giske had started undertaking two years prior as an ongoing practice of transcription. Giske, who was on the brink of releasing his sophomore album, Cracks, then joined Barbieri's light-years tour, which functioned as an inaugural incarnation of her newborn label and platform. Through the tour, they continued to develop material live, and this release, laid down in the studio, is true to that ever-evolving process of creation, where live feedback stays essential to the vitality of this collaborative effort. The tracks are each named with two evocative words that contain the two poles of their sound. Theirs is both abstract and cosmic, in the synth as machine undermined by Barbieri's naturalistic playing, and in Giske's continuous exploration of the symbiosis between his instrument, voice, and body. These binaries, of body and machine, posed various challenges, notably in how the stepped patterns Barbieri uses were near-impossible to translate for Giske's body to perform, and other times where mathematical resolutions were needed to sync their playing.

"A psych-pop cult classic tracks. The Orange Bicycle blends Beatles/Beach Boys‑inspired psychedelic-pop style and sun-drenched melodies. The Orange Bicycle captures the kaleidoscopic charm of late-'60s British psychedelia. Featuring lush arrangements, sitar-laced textures, and soaring vocal harmonies. 3CD presented in a clam box and booklet with sleeve notes."

"Chet Baker showed with his music that little bit of dark substance that exists in the human being -- the shadow side -- just as very few other jazz musicians have been able to do. However, such a reading that looks for traces of anguish and self-destruction in every note -- and which has also been translated into a couple of films -- has ended up overshadowing something very important: namely, that Chet Baker was a top-notch jazz musician, the creator of a unique and personal poetics, an interpreter who did not wallow in his own torments but who also knew how to take less introspective paths, including a superfine and very lively swing. Chet Baker's music had characteristics of its own. Of a bebop nature in the fast pieces, he had in solos that complex and pulsating way that characterized this style. He differed from it in the soft timbre of the trumpet, which rarely indulged in the 'flare-ups' typical of the boppers, and above all for the insistent use of pauses. These were precisely one of the cornerstones of his musical language. In the ballads the trumpeter-singer expanded them to the point of absurdity (and so did with the notes), making them spaces charged of meaning, as can be seen in the somber 'I'm a Fool to Want You,' made famous by Billie Holiday, and also in the serene 'In a Sentimental Mood.' In this final phase of his career, Baker often liked to have groups without drums with him because, in addition to allowing him to maintain a muffled volume in his singing and trumpet playing, the drumless situation guaranteed him greater freedom. Only the double bass player was left to keep time, a role here entrusted to a solid Knauer. In 'Ferrara,' a sensitive French pianist, Michel Graillier, took the stage; in those years he was looking for a synthesis between the energy of McCoy Tyner and the harmonic language of Bill Evans. Finally, the presence of a piano allowed Stilo to limit the use of the other harmonic instrument, the guitar, in favor of the flute."

Aigua Ballant ("Dancing Waters") is a musical fusion where the Mediterranean soul meets the deep-rooted mysticism of Central Asia. Inspired by the surprising resonance between the work melodies of Balearic Islands and Pitises Islands and the haunting beauty of Persian and Byzantine melodies, Qanat weaves together the rich traditions of the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and Persia. The project blends old Balearic work songs with the modal textures of Middle Eastern and Central Asian music -- including influences from Iran, Turkey, Tajikistan, and the ancient region of Khorasan. At the heart of the project is the remarkable melodic kinship between Balearic field songs -- once sung during rural labor -- and the ancient echoes of Byzantine chant. Qanat bridges these traditions, crafting new musical landscapes through original compositions, instrumental dialogues, and vocal ornamentations that celebrate the shared soul of these distant-yet-connected cultures.

Berlin-based international collective Saturno 4000 present their highly-anticipated debut LP, Arrival. Known for their explosive live shows and genre-defying grooves, the band blends psychedelic rock with flavors of Turkish and Latin music, surf, funk, and Afrobeat. With a reputation for igniting dance floors across Europe, Arrival comprises ten tracks that mark the next step in their mission: to push boundaries and reinvent groove-driven music for a new generation. Lyrically, the album weaves in themes of philosophy, hermetic principles, and humanity, adding a deeper dimension to its captivating rhythms and radiant soundscapes.

Italia Undiscovered Vol. 2 continues its journey into the most compelling sounds of the Italian underground disco scene. Bringing together veteran producers and emerging talents, this eclectic and forward-looking collection honors the legacy of Italian disco while embracing the evolution that followed the Italo Disco boom. A vibrant snapshot of contemporary disco made in Italy, rooted in tradition, driven by innovation, and crafted for the dancefloor. Only a few months after the debut of the first chapter, Italia Undiscovered returns with Volume 2, continuing its mission to spotlight the very best of the Italian underground disco scene. This new installment brings together veteran producers and emerging talents in a collective, eclectic, and forward-thinking project. Italia Undiscovered Vol. 2 is a sonic journey that pays tribute to the rich tradition of Italian disco while embracing the evolution that followed the Italo Disco boom. Blending contemporary grooves, retro influences, and bold experimentation, the compilation stands as a key reference point for those seeking authenticity, musical research, and pure dancefloor energy, a sonic manifesto that celebrates the past, captures the present, and looks toward the future of disco made in Italy. Featuring Rimini Metafisica, Italo Deviance, Fogli & Di Lello, Tengrams, Forklift & Saw, Disco Experience, Marta Paradise, and Deep Field.

Clark's latest film score is for We Bury the Dead, the Daisy Ridley-starring feature film. Limited to 500 copies for the world on color-within-color vinyl. Stunning artwork. Set in Tasmania and offering a fresh take on the zombie genre. Clark reveals the films emotional heart with tender strings and choral recordings, whilst underpinning with glorious bass sounds that could be taken straight from recent studio album Steep Stims. Plus the occasional requisite jump scare, pin drop tension and vocal eeriness.

We Jazz Magazine, Issue 18 / Spring 2026: Space Time for Shabaka. 128 pages, 170 x 240 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. All articles presented in English. Shabaka by Tina Edwards, Booker Stardrum by Clifford Allen, Aurora Nealand by Bennett Kirschner, Jazz Now Jazz by Rui Miguel Abreu, "The Space Book" by Patrick Preziosi, "XT" by XT (Paul Abbott & Seymour Wright), Naïssam Jalal by Florent Servia, Craig Taborn by Bret Sjerven, the term "Free Jazz" by Pierre Crépon, Alexander Hawkins by Kevin Le Gendre Alan Braufman by Andy Beta, Discaholic column by Mats Gustafsson, album reviews, live reviews, Big Ears Festival photo essay and more.

One of the longest standing figures amidst the Discrepant wolfpack, the unstoppable alias of sound collector Laurent Jeanneau returns to the fold after Tanzania II (CREP 098LP) with this 2.0 update of the celebrated The Lisu sort-of-mixtape released way back in 2014. Based on recordings of music from the Lisu communities in China and Thailand captured on site, this mix shows Gong more like a selector or DJ, restricting electronic processing to a bare minimum in order to convey different histories, places and timeframes within the same mesmerizing continuum. A respectful and deeply vivid evocation of all the richness and diversity found among the different strands of lisu music, from ceremonial vocal incantations through a chibeu string instrument "processed" in loco through saturated street speakers to moments of pure poetic radiance, The Lisu flows gracefully with the keen sense of wonder and knowledge of one of this century's most thoughtful and insightful sonic travelers.

Compare the best of British jazz circa 1963 with American sounds from labels such as Prestige, Tangerine and World Pacific. This album captures the period when rhythm and blues is emerging as the dominant club sound, forcing Soho jazz clubs to change their music policy in order to survive. On the British side, you've got Ronnie Scott's arrangement of "Last Minute Bossa Nova"; "Bang!," taken from Dick Morrissey Quartet's first session for the BBC's World Service, recorded around the time of the release of their first album Have You Heard? The version here is take two. "Early In The Morning" is a Ginger Baker/Jack Bruce arrangement of the traditional work song realized as a repeated blues riff, and is the first ever recording that is recognizably British Blues. Graham Bond features on alto sax along with Bruce and Baker together as members of the Johnny Burch Octet heard playing live at a BBC staff party from March 1963. Side Two features Jazz Stateside, such as West Coast guitarist Johnny Hartsman, Gene Ammons veering into proto jazz-funk on "Jungle Soul," aka "Ca' Purange," plus a couple of top notch Hammond workouts from Terrell Prude and Charles Kynard.

Red color vinyl. Third album from Sheffield folk artist blending traditional songs and original compositions to remarkable effect. 180gram heavyweight black vinyl with download code and gatefold sleeve. On his new album Wasteland, Jim Ghedi has created something huge. Intense, brooding, bold, at times apocalyptic, and remarkably vast. A profoundly bold sonic statement that is some of the most rich, far-reaching and ambitious work that Ghedi has created to date -- pushing the boundaries of what folk music can be. Recorded over two years at Tesla Studios in Sheffield, with David Glover engineering and producing, it also features a wide cast of musicians such as David Grubb (fiddle), Daniel Bridgwood-Hill (fiddle), Neal Heppleston (bass), Joe Danks (drums), Dean Honer from I Monster (synths), Cormac MacDiarmada from Lankum (vocals), Ruth Clinton from Landless (vocals), and Amelia Baker from Cinder Well (vocals). Wasteland is a record that is unafraid to plunge into the darkness of the modern world and embrace the weirder, edgier and more unnerving moments that come from doing so. It is an album that captures all the enormity of life from the micro to the macro, zooming in on the personal as well reflecting on broader societal issues. As with previous albums, such as 2018's A Hymn for Ancient Land and 2021's In the Furrows of Common Place, Ghedi uses traditional folk songs as a means to explore contemporary issues via modern and experimentally-leaning music. Lead single "Wasteland" is a stunning piece of work that while rooted in an environment being corrupted and broken. The decision to incorporate more fuller sounds, such as electric guitar and huge drums, results in a notable shift and evolution in tone for Ghedi. What Ghedi has done in creating his masterpiece is construct a remarkable space where deeply intimate and personal feelings coexist with reflections on environment, place and society, while also interweaving historical context via traditional songs. Wasteland is as much of a world to explore and exist in as much as it is an album, with Ghedi carving out his distinctly unique sonic language and voice to explore that singular environment.

"Bergsonist emerges on Dark Entries with Depths, a genre-bending 12-track LP of atmospheric and rhythmic excursions. For more than a decade, Moroccan-born Selwa Abd has been using the Bergsonist moniker to examine postcolonial identity and speculative temporalities across disparate media, including sound, image, video, and installation. She is also a key figure in New York underground music, fostering mutual aid and community support through her platforms Pick up the Flow (PUTF) and BizaarBazaar. On album ASL أصل ⴰⵙⵍ, Bergsonist explored her Amazigh heritage using field recordings captured in Morocco. With Depths, her sixth LP, she continues the project of ancestral reconnection through sound. Abd notes: 'I really use making music as therapy, not as a precious act, more as an energy release that makes me feel alive.' Depths overflows with this excess of vitality. Tracks like 'Trust the Current,' 'Depths,' and 'Underwater World Pursuit' showcase her singular take on diasporic techno-futurism, where James Stinson-esque atmospherics meet Moroccan rhythms. Elsewhere, 'Again' and 'Higher' push into coldwave territory, with icy arpeggios and electroid beats dancing beneath Abd's ethereal vocals. But the dancefloor is not to be neglected: 'Breakthrough' and 'Ode to Life' spring forth with the kind of skewed peak-hour energy that only Bergsonist can bring. Artwork for Depths was designed by Eloise Leigh, and incorporates photographs by Abd and Greg Zifcak taken in Morocco. Also included is a protection poster that features an Amazigh symbol used for warding off the evil eye. Depths is an album that achieves a rare balance of elegance and DIY ethics -- it is truly an ode to life."

A l'approche du feu meditant ("Approaching the meditative flame"), originally composed in 1983. Theater Music for a sound and visual ceremonial. A tribute to the goddess of the light, the sun, and the stars. For 27 instrumentalists from the Gagaku Orchestra (divided in three separate ensembles), two choruses of Buddhist monk singers (Shômyo singing traditionnal school -- Tendai and Shingon sects -- divided in four separated ensembles, with four monk singer soloist voices), six percussionists, five Bugaku dancers. Extracts of this piece were published by Harmonia Mundi on a double vinyl in 1985.

LP version. Finally back in print! Originally released by EMI's Pathé Marconi imprint in 1969, People in Sorrow -- a 40-minute work by the four-piece lineup of Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Lester Bowie, and Malachi Favors -- has long been unavailable on vinyl and CD, and then only in hard-to-find European and Japanese issues. It is arguably the finest and most ambitious of the 14 studio albums recorded by the Art Ensemble during their 23-month sojourn in France, which launched the American group internationally. People in Sorrow can be viewed as the culminating event in the Art Ensemble's inventive and revolutionary approach to collective improvisation, counterpoising clamorous free-blowing intensity with expanses of hushed conversation on the group's immense arsenal of "little instruments." Fully licensed from Warner Music, and augmented with new liner notes by veteran U.S. music journalist Chris Morris, this release marks the long-awaited return of the record that Chicago-based writer, curator, and label operator John Corbett calls "one of the most luminous albums of creative music ever made." This edition faithfully recreates the first French Pathé-Marconi pressing of People in Sorrow (1969), which originally featured black graphics on a light (white or off-white) background and red Pathé-Marconi labels, rather than the yellow cover seen on later issues. The vinyl LP includes an inlay with detailed liner notes, while the CD Digipak (PL 195CD) comes with a 12-page booklet containing the same material. The album has been newly remastered by Moritz Illner (duophonic), who also handled play Loud!'s acclaimed reissue of the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Les Stances à Sophie.

Stevie Cox and Ansboy: two powerhouses of the Glaswegian club scene join forces for their collaborative debut EP on Rhythm Section INTL, Twice Like Rice. It's a weighty four-track EP designed for the dancefloor, taking in myriad influences from dub techno, breaks, trance and good old fashioned house music. Ansboy is a fresh alias for the Grammy-nominated producer and mixdown engineer, Robert Etherson, a staple in the Scottish scene with an international touring repertoire. "GC" is a peak-time breaks-infused trancey-heater -- a master class in building dancefloor tension. Things spin towards a darker percussive focus on the more intense "Twice Like Rice". On the B-side, things return to blissful euphoria with "Virgil" -- a warm up dub-techno ballad, before the emotional release of "Subculture Closure"-inspired "Carter 21".

2026 repress. LP version. "'Godzilla just walked into the room. People just stood there with their eyes and mouths wide open.' To hear Randy Holden describe the audience's reaction in 1969 to his solo debut performing with a teeth-rattling phalanx of 16 (sixteen!) 200 watt Sunn amps is about as close as one will get to truly experience the moment heavy metal music morphed into existence. However, at last Riding Easy have unearthed the proper fossil record. Population II, the now legendary, extremely rare album by guitarist/vocalist Holden and drummer/keyboardist Chris Lockheed is considered to be one of the earliest examples of doom metal. Though its original release was a very limited in number and distribution, like all great records, its impact over time has continued to grow. In 1969, Holden, fresh off his tenure with proto-metal pioneers Blue Cheer (appearing on one side of the New! Improved! Blue Cheer album and touring for the better part of a year in the group), aimed for more control over his band. Thus, Randy Holden - Population II was born, the duo naming itself after the astronomical term for a particular star cluster with heavy metals present. 'I wanted to do something that hadn't been done before,' Holden explains. 'I was interested in discordant sounds that could be melodic but gigantically huge. I rented an Opera house for rehearsal, set up with 16 Sunn amps. That's what I was going for, way over the top.' And over the top it is. The six-song album delves into leaden sludge, lumbering doom and epic soaring riffs that sound free from all constraints of the era. It's incredibly heavy, but infused with a melodic, albeit mechanistic, sensibility. Troubles with the album's release bankrupted Holden, who subsequently left music for over two decades. It was bootlegged several times over the years, but until now hasn't seen a proper remaster and has yet to be available on digital platforms. 'The original mastering just destroyed the dynamics of it,' Holden says. 'They flattened it out. Now we got a really nice remaster that should be the closest thing to the original recording.'"

2026 restock. Erkin Koray and Sublime Frequencies are pleased to present this collection of rare tracks and lesser-heard singles. All tracks were recorded and released in Turkey between 1970-1977 and culled from Koray's personal vinyl collection. Includes exclusive photos and remastered audio. What more is there to say about Erkin Koray? An iconic guitar and songwriting genius. A voice of gold. Having founded the country's first-ever rock and roll group in 1957, he is regarded worldwide as the father of Turkish rock. Forging Western sounds with his own inimitable musical mastery, he self-produced singles and LPs throughout the 1960s and 1970s that shook and altered Turkish society. Erkin didn't stop at rock and roll. Over time, he began to find inspiration in folk sounds from Turkey's Anatolian interior, and radio broadcasts received from Egypt and Lebanon. He looked to the East from his West-leaning Istanbul perch, and began incorporating these sounds into his own work. This amalgamation was as unprecedented and unorthodox in Istanbul at the time as rock and roll itself had been in the 1950s. The resulting hybrid sound ignited what became known as the Arabesque music movement in Turkey -- which continues to this day. While Erkin has recorded and performed tirelessly throughout the years (both as a solo artist, and with the powerful groups he formed), his extensive back catalog only began to be explored by the international community in the 1990s. He is now recognized as one of the foremost global leaders of psychedelic, folk rock, pop and balladry. His music has stood the test of time more than many of his Western contemporaries and influences have managed to, and his prolific work ethic has not ceased. He continues to live and breathe music, performing epic concerts, and continuously plotting new recordings and strategies. His vision and integrity, coupled with his pronounced world views and inherent musical greatness, have made him the unique and magnificent living legend he is today. This collection features tracks not found on the many unauthorized Erkin compilations and LP reissues that have emerged in the West over the years. Ranging from the sublime to the surreal, these tracks offer an essential glimpse into the extensive repertoire of the great Erkin Koray. --Mark Gergis, July, 2011

LP version. Green color vinyl. Comes with a full 12x12 4-page color booklet with detailed track information, and extensive liner notes from Anderson. "Marisa Anderson's music transcends borders. The topography of her work interrogates the intersections of artistry and expression with form and tradition. A singular guitarist and voracious musical collaborator, Anderson crafts pieces bursting with equal parts reverence and curiosity, contouring familiar shapes into work that is wholly her own. Anderson has spent decades mining the veins of the complicated, interconnected American folk traditions she was steeped in from a young age, stretching beyond those traditions and incorporating the vocabulary and techniques of vernacular folk music from around the world into her work. Eschewing replication or revival, Anderson's music lives in conversation with tradition. The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music is drawn from nearly one thousand songs culled from the private record collection of the late Harry Smith. For this record, Anderson works on music from places that the United States has been in conflict with since 1970: Southeast Asia, the USSR and the Arabic and Islamic regions of the world. In Volume 1 Anderson presents her own deeply personal iterations of nine songs from the Anthology. Composed, transcribed and arranged through a process of trial and error, deep listening and research, Anderson charts a musical course from Afghanistan to Vietnam via Yemen, Cambodia and Turkmenistan. Interpretations of compositions from Pakistani qawwali and Syrian taqsim are played with Anderson's deft and practiced hands. Each piece on the album stands as a dialogue between Anderson and the original source recordings, refracted through the prism of her unique musical lens. Anderson's contribution to this dialogue ultimately invites the listener to join her in asking: 'Who are the people we've been told in our lifetimes are 'unamerican?'' What have we lost or been denied access to in the fallout from that label?"

"[A] musician working out emotions physically, instinctively, with her fingers on the strings." - The New York Times

"Folk guitar genius" - Stereogum

CD digipack. After a prolific cassette discography, The Totemist marks a new direction for the mysterious group. Equipped with studio quality recordings and a (somewhat) lighter tone, opposed to the oppressively lo-fi sound the group is known for. This is a deep psychedelic-folk album with hints of mysticism, some of which was written and recorded in a ghost-town in the Chihuahuan Desert in far West Texas -- a place where the dead outnumber the living. Various overdubs and field recordings were captured in the historic Terlingua cemetery: an ancient burial ground filled with small grottoes and graves made of sticks and stones. This being the final resting place for miners who succumbed from illnesses derived from the toxic rare-earth element known as mercury. Originally released as an LP.

"Amish Records is pleased to announce the first recorded collaboration between David Watson and Bill Nace, entitled On Bats. Historically, ensembles combining taishōgoto and bagpipes (at least inside the milieu of 'jazz') have been on the tame side. The Winkler Twins, Dagnabbit, CUZ and other such units pandered to the bowtie set so exclusively that many people have all but dismissed the instruments as hopelessly moldy or even (in the words of critic Milo Fine) 'tools of fascism and complacency.' That said, it is my pleasure to announce that the duo of William 'Bill' Nace and Dave 'David' Watson has made a mighty effort hereon to liberate these instruments from the yoke of yokelism. Nace is a Philadelphia-based wizard of avant-string tomfoolery with a recording history stretching back to Vampire Belt (with Chris Corsano) in the early Oughts. Watson is an NYC-based New Zealand ex-pat whose multi-instrumental genius was first evidenced with the Primitive Art Group in the '80s. Now, with On Bats, the pair have set out to right the wrongs of generations of the dull ass taishōgoto/bagpipes artists who preceded them. The taishōgoto is, of course, a Japanese stringed instrument perhaps best described as a cross between a zither and a typewriter. Bagpipes are, well, pipes with a bag attached. Using their respective instruments to create both long-form tones and berserk machine-like squeedles, Nace and Watson create a varied and surreal aural landscape that shifts contours and colors with ease. The way they combine voices here often manifests as a sonic analogy to William Burroughs 'Third Mind' effect. While taishōgoto and bagpipes are usually thought to have radically different sounds, the manner with these two handle them here can sometimes make it difficult to figure out from whence particular passages emanate. These parts, where one drones while the other wiggles, are some of my favorite bits. But there really isn't a dull moment anywhere. Even when Nace whips out his harmonica! Of course, there are some duds who will claim this is not 'jazz' the way they define it, but that's okay. The term is fluid and can be applied any way that anyone wants. If you wanna claim it's aleatory 'new music' or some kind of example of 'post-rock-noise-improv,' go ahead. They're your fucking lips." --Byron Coley

Unglee Izi -- France's elusive and impenetrable one-man electronic project -- delivers his most introspective and self-contemplating work to date. Four hours of music spread over four CDs, Le Temps Des Figures Du Soleil Noir proceeds further with his inexplicable open-ended quest in sound. This new episode in the Musique de l'A.S.M.A. saga confronts listeners with a new staggering journey in surgical-precision electronic compositions soaked in dark/bliss mystifying ecstasy that solemnly directs towards unknown spiritual realms. Olivier Messiaen is the only actual musical reference Unglee Izi has explicitly validated in regards to this truly comprehensive work in his oeuvre. The 4 CDs are housed inside a thick cardboard slipcase along with a 150+ page booklet featuring a selection of Unglee Izi's cryptic and gorgeous photography. The journey starts and ends here.

2026 restock; LP version. On "Cold Sweat," James Brown famously called to "give the drummer some." In 1974, Philadelphia vibraphonist Khan Jamal called to Give the Vibes Some, with superb results. Pianist and composer Jef Gilson's PALM label gave Jamal the platform he needed to deliver a thorough exploration of contemporary vibraphone. After launching PALM in 1973, Gilson quickly demonstrated that he would only produce records not found anywhere else. Give the Vibes Some, PALM number 10, was another confirmation of this guiding principle. Raised and based in Philadelphia, Khan Jamal took up the vibes in 1968, after two years in the army during which he was stationed in France and Germany. Decisively drawn to the instrument by the work of the Modern Jazz Quartet's Milt Jackson, Jamal studied under Philadelphia vibraphone legend Bill Lewis and soon made his debuts in the local underground. Early in 1972, Jamal made his first recording, with the Sounds of Liberation. The band attempted an original fusion of conga-heavy grooves with avant-garde jazz soloing. Saxophonist Byard Lancaster, an important figure in Jamal's development, contributed much of the solo work. Later in 1972, Jamal made his leader debut with Drum Dance to the Motherland, a reverb-drenched, never-to-be-replicated experiment with live sound processing. Both albums appeared on the tiny musician-run Dogtown label. "We couldn't get no play from nowhere. No gigs or recording sessions or anything. So I took off for Paris," Jamal recalled in a Cadence interview with Ken Weiss. "Within a few weeks, I had a few articles and I did a record date. It didn't make me feel good about America." That was in 1974, while Byard Lancaster was recording the music gathered on Souffle Continu's The Complete PALM Recordings, 1973-1974. Jamal's record date delivered Give the Vibes Some. At its core, it was an exploratory solo vibraphone album, even if two tracks added (through technological resourcefulness?) a très célèbre French drummer very much into Elvin Jones appearing under pseudonym for contractual reasons. Another track, for which Jamal switched to the vibes's wooden ancestor, the marimba, added young Texan trumpeter Clint Jackson III. The most notable article published on Jamal during this stay in France was a Jazz Magazine interview. Jamal's last word there were "The Creator has a master plan/drum dance to the motherland." "Give the vibes some" could be added to this programmatic statement.